During Times of Conflict:

• Do you feel disconnected and estranged from your partner?

• Do you feel on the outside of your relationship looking in?

• Do you find yourself working harder than your partner to resolve conflicts between the two of you?

• Or, does withdrawing or giving in feel like the only way to keep the peace between you and your partner?

• When feeling alone or hurt, do you show indifference, anger, or defensiveness towards your partner.

Unsure how to broach the topic of couple’s therapy with your partner, click 5 Steps to Inspire Your Partner to Join You in Attending Couples Therapy to learn more. There, you will find helpful topics and advice. Another helpful resource is the Free Gottman Relationship Quiz. It assess what you know about your partner, and what you believe your partner knows about you. It can provide clarity about the felt closeness or distance in your relationship. And, provide a launching pad for therapy.

Healing and Strengthening Relationships Through Emotion Focused Therapy

• Focuses on the way you and your partner’s early attachment and bonding experiences show up in your present day relationship patterns.

• It works by increasing you and your partner’s awareness of negative interactional patterns that are impact feelings of closeness, safety, and security.

• It provides a roadmap for you and your partner to untangle and break free from these destructive cycles.

• It helps you and your partner disrupt these patterns by helping you develop the tools needed to communicate your feelings, preference, and hopes in a way that fosters curiosity and promotes emotional security.

• Emotional security facilitates greater engagement, trust, and intimacy between partners.

• EFT attends to our innate need for emotional connection and security within our most intimate relationships.

When these needs are met, your relationship thrives. However, when attachment injuries occur, you and your partner are more likely to fall into negative cycles, such as criticism, defensiveness, or withdrawal, which erode the sense of safety and emotional connection between you and your partner. These negative relational patterns can become fixed and rigid overtime. To learn more about these destructive cycles and assess how you or your partner may be contributing to the cycle, click EFT Negative Cycles for Couples and EFT Self Reflection Questions.

Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) Works:

Research has consistently supported the effectiveness of EFT as a treatment for couples. Studies have shown that EFT leads to significant improvements in relationship satisfaction, emotional intimacy, and effective communication. It has also been found to be effective in addressing various relationship issues, such as infidelity, mistrust, and unresolved conflicts.

* Note: Emotion Focused Therapy is not appropriate for couples when one partner is considering leaving or ending the relationship, or there is intimate partner violence.

To learn if Emotion Focused Therapy can help strengthen and heal your relationship, click the tab below to schedule a free 15 min. consultation today.